HOMELAND: Church burns, but faith perseveres (UPDATE)

Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives work Sunday, May 1, 2016, at Community First Church of God on Highway 74 in Homeland, which was damaged in a fire the night before. The ATF investigates church fires.

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Pastor Mike Gratzke said Community First Church of God plans to rebuild, but no fund has been started. If the community wants to show support, he said, everyone is welcome to attend the next services on Sunday, May 8. The time and location are yet to be determined, but people can call the church at 951-926-1345 to find out later in the week.

If the fire that gutted Community First Church of God in Homeland this weekend was a test of faith, the church’s leaders say they’ve come out stronger than ever.

“We lost a building, but the building is not the church,” Pastor Mike Gratzke said Sunday evening. “Our faith has not been burned at all.”

He said he had been getting calls all day long from church leaders across the country showing their support, while Pastor Rocky Moore said the approximately 75-member congregation was pulling together.

“It's been a rough day, but through this is when the people of our church come together and persevere,” Moore said.

Gratzke said church leaders met Sunday at his house and came up with a plan for moving forward. The church will rebuild at its current location, he said, where it has stood for about 25 years.

"We're not going to build on the past. We're going to start new," he said.

Meanwhile Sunday, investigators – including a canine trained to smell petroleum-based products that can start fires – were at the scene trying to determine how the fire started.

The fire was reported about 8 p.m. Saturday at the church at 31371 Highway 74, in the community of Homeland between Hemet and Menifee. About 45 firefighters responded, as did Southern California Edison crews. Highway 74 was closed until about 9:40 p.m. No one was injured.

A rooftop cross on the front of the church still stands, though partly scorched and at a tilt, and the roof over a rear entrance remained intact, but the rest of the roof between those sections was destroyed. Inside, the church was filled with charred pews and debris from the collapsed roof.

Debris and mud in the rear parking lot Sunday morning attested to the volume of water used to extinguish the blaze. The smell of wet wood lingered.

Because the fire occurred at a house of worship, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is leading the investigation into what happened.

Six to eight ATF investigators were there Sunday, spokeswoman Meredith Davis said via email. They will “dig down to the slab,” and those findings will dictate the course of the investigation.

Additionally, the ATF brought in an “accelerant detection canine” and handler from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

“The fire can char or consume evidence of a crime,” Davis wrote. “The fire suppression efforts may also dilute a product so that it is not detectable to the human nose. We smell in parts per million, whereas canines smell in parts per quadrillion.”

Gratzke said if the community wants to show its support, everyone is welcome to attend the next services on Sunday, May 8. The time and location are yet to be determined, but people can call the church at 951-926-1345 to find out later in the week.

Moore said the church across the street, New Life Fellowship, has offered to let them hold services there, and they are thinking of holding tent services in the parking lot.

He said the church is a Christian church with a free or open style of worship.

"You can be quiet, or a hallelujah guy like me," Moore said.

Aaron Englehart lives in a fifth-wheel trailer behind the back parking lot. He said he has attended the church for about four years, and he volunteers to do maintenance and "help out where I can."

"I'm distraught," Englehart said Sunday morning. "But at the same time we will rebuild."

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